I work inside the Darkling Room, on the Cornwall coast; creating interactive ghost-stories (games!). Titles include Dark Fall, Lights Out, Lost Souls and The Lost Crown Saga.
When not stuck behind the LCD, I enjoy exploring the weird and wonderful, wildlife and the landscape.

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

The Last Crown - Explores Psychometry & The Detective.

A new year! Brand, spanking new. Hurrah!

With a New Year comes a few updates, changes and announcements. So, without further ado, here's the news, from me and Darkling Room.

I've launched a proper mini-site for The Last Crown - Haunting of Hallowed Isle, in anticipation of an Easter release, this year. Sorry for disappointing, in 2010. Pretty much everyone knows how release dates get moved around; put back, shunted about, abused, ignored, tortured, rubbished….but, the games do appear on store shelves. Sooner, rather than later…I hope.

In the meantime, I've created a mini-adventure to explore the world of…

But, what is Psychometry? How does it work? And…is it a load of old cobblers?

What is Psychometry? - Psychometry, also known as token-object reading, is a form of extra-sensory perception characterised by the claimed ability to make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object. Supporters assert that an object may have an energy field that transfers knowledge regarding that object's history. (Wikipedia)

Basically, you sense 'things' from objects.

How does Psychometry work? - Well, like all funky psychic stuff, it's rather 'out there', in terms of scientific explanations, but bear with. Psychometry is the practise of 'reading' the energy fields, stored (or trapped) within an inanimate object. Some claim you can 'see' or feel the history of the object, aspects of previous owners and glimpses into the world in which it has travelled. Exciting stuff! Some of you have, no doubt, seen some Psychometry on the ghost-hunting and 'unsolved crime' shows. Usually, an object is handed to a medium, with no prior knowledge of the object.

Their task is to pick up on any residual energy left over from previous owners. Weapons, photos, jewellery and personal items often make good objects; they carry more energy, or the medium can invent a better story. Either way, I find it all very interesting, as I've dabbled a bit in this field, allowing me to see some surprisingly good results. I'm not saying I am a 100% percent, paid-up member of the Psychometry Gang (they wouldn't have me!), but I do believe in the power of the mind, to decypher clues and make connections. I think of those skills as detective work, rather than anything supernatural… but, we should not ignore our instincts. Perhaps they tell us far more than we would think? Basically, take it seriously, and you may be surprised.

Psychometry and The Last Crown - Nigel and Lucy are a team, a good team, with Nanny Noah as ghost-hunting advisor (boss!). But, they do like to do things differently. Nigel thinks, and has been told, that he has 'The Gift'. He's psychic! Nanny Noah is helping Nigel reach his full potential, as she knows her powers alone will not be enough to stop the on-coming darkness.

We've seen, in the previous game, that Nigel can 'time-jump'; pass from one time to another, in the blink of an eye. He is a time sensitive, which means he sees things differently from everyone else. Peoples and places from the past merge with the world of 'now', which Nigel is able to 'see' and explore. Objects are no different. With a little effort and focus, Nigel can see many layers of activity and history which others may not.

Lucy, on the otherhand, is more practically inclined. She's a detective. She likes rational, logical explanations as to 'why things happen'. It's not that she doesn't believe in strange forces, but she'd rather exhaust the obvious first, before jumping on the paranormal band-wagon (what a ride!). Instead, Lucy will spend her time, with the object, studying the details left behind by previous owners. Scuffs, wear and tear, dirt, blood, grime…etc etc. There are plenty of tell-tale signs and clues, if you look hard enough.

Together, Nigel and Lucy make a formidable force! But, will it be enough, for Nanny Noah? It seems not. She is planning on hosting many more Psychic Detection Evenings, at The Bear Inn, on Saxton Harbour. It's certainly a great setting for paranormal nights, when Morgan Mankle isn't fussing about the place (she's rather busy of late, with her book!). The first session has already come and gone, (you missed it!), but there are further sessions planned for the coming months. Nanny Noah is looking for new recruits, so you could stand a good chance, if you 'read' the objects correctly.

Tip: Some objects are employed as 'Testers'; Nanny Noah already knows a bit about those objects, so will be looking for you to help corroborate her findings. But, what she doesn't know is the fact that ALL objects have a story, no matter how old, new or obscure. Perhaps your powers, whether they are Psychic or Detective, will provide clues unknown to Saxton's much-loved wicca? Give it a go.

There's also the chance to get some hefty hints as to the nature of the next story!

Jonathan

P.s. Happy New Year! It's going to be a good one for Darkling Room, after a year of legal cases against previous publishers; Got Game Entertainment & Mamba Games, Lace Mamba and Lace Mamba Global, (plenty of different company names to keep the opposing lawyers going in circles). But, who cares about greedy men, in bad suits, when I create games for a living? Best job in the world. Time to make some adventures!

14 comments:

Well said, my friend!! Happy new year to you too and i DEF look forward to The Last Crown! And when you come back to the US (for pleasure this time, not legal business) I owe you and Matt some adult frosty beverages! :o)

Exciting exciting exciting! So glad you're still working in black and white, which I think added enormously to the atmosphere of TLC#1. Also glad to see the kitties are back on the rooftops.

Do you have any ETA for the new game? Can you beat Matt in getting Bracken Tor out? (Actually I hope not--I don't want those two games competing for my time. I want to focus completely on one at a time!)

Nice new site, Jonathan. Those 3d models in the Java window--are they comparitive in quality to the realtime models we'll see in TLC2? Becouse they seem a lot better then the ones in TLC1.I hope the legal shinannagins of last year ended up satisfying to your intrests. Those are indeed four company names too many!Looking forward to TLC2, best regards,James CW

when I saw the updated website with the psychometry stuff I thought to myself: "that's it...the game is released, I may now be eternally happy" but then I saw this dreaded word on your blog: "Easter"...a little part of me died inside =p oh well, you know what we Greeks say "the good stuff takes time to happen" =]

OK, after actually reading the whole post, I see that the ETA for the game is Easter.

And I make my living by reading. Ha.

However, I took the test! After some cheating I was able to read the full posts about each of the four items. Now I'm really excited! I especially liked the hint about that Anglo-Saxon item. We should be meeting some really interesting new characters.

And Nanny Noah, one of my fave characters from TLC, appears to have a prominent role. Hooray. Hope the Station Master is back too.

Utterly Awesome!Happy New Year to you too!Can't wait for The Last Crown,the first one became my favorite game when I played it.& it was up with alot of competition with me, and I happen to stumble across it on a shelf, last one.& the information about the Psychometry, really intriguing too.I never watched any of the ghost shows because I honestly thought if they were creating tv shows about it, more than likely weren't entirely true. So most of my technical information of such , your games & things you write. lol! Though, have seen some odd things. Theres a 1800s cemetary around an hour away. I had come across when I rode dirtbikes alot w/ my dad. It was funny cuz at the time, there was still people being buring there, like 3 new graves. Not unusual but there was only like 50 graves alltogether. Very small. It was like 2003 when we found it.So, years later to 2009, me and my fiancee drive out to it, so I could show him. We go to abandoned houses, I'm a partical photographer so we take pics.So we go out there, take pictures and I show him certain names and I'm trying to find the newish graves to show him. They were not there. Nothing over the 1980s was there. rofl now if that wadn't creepy enough, cuz I remembered it being with dad, I even asked him again and he was like yeah there was. It gets dark, and ofcourse you get all the silly creepy chills this cemeratary is in the middle of no where, no houses for miles. Nothing new, I'm still taking pics, trying to get kewl nightshots.And theres a big tree to the middle front of the cemetary, you can't get to it. Because there's too many graves around it and it's impossible to know where to walk cuz it's so old. But theres a grave under it. No big deal, my love takes the camera and tries to get a pic of it, and we're standing there barely light up and I see two red deep eyes alittle to the left of the grave under the tree, with about my height level. They don't shine like an animals, so I'm intrigued. . but telling my love whos lookin through the camera, "You see that?"He calmly says yes, takes a pic and we start walking around the front of the cemetary trying to be all cool.He takes a pic of the front of the cemetary with the big name of it in teh metal arch, letter missing and stuff and I get like this horrible gut feeling. . I tell him this, and he's like, yeah go to the car. I erm. . run to the car. ROFLand he's all being cool, walking to the car. He gets in & I roll down my window, take the camera, look at the tree make him shine the car lights on it now it's fully dark and take a pic.We leave.

Now, I don't believe in persay, ghosts or anything. . I do think there's something to it, I have my own ideas but that'll be another long post too, so I won't write it rofl! But when we looked at the pics, some of the graves show white faces. . and in teh last pic there was a white girls face over the grave, a few in the tree anda terrble lookin, lightly outlined horned shadow creature is walking right towards the car in the last pic.And when we talked about what we "saw"Where I had seen the red eyes,my love had seen the white girl.And no eyes. rofl so it was pretty interesting. Needless to say, we've only been out there once more with a couple of friends to show them when we told them about it. . and we didn't stay after dark.

ROFL, also know, this is coming from a soon-to-be 19 year old, and my love is soon-to-be 20 so. So, yeah no one believes us, even when we showed the pics they thought we messed with them or something.I had lost over 8000 pictures about 3 months ago so I can't post em noww. . but oh well! rofl Kewl memory and I'm sorry I just wrote such a lonng post, it just made me think of it for some reason!

But anyways! Can't wait for the next game, and so agree, you have the best job in the world! :)Fair thee well!~Tyz

Utterly Awesome!Happy New Year to you too!Can't wait for The Last Crown,the first one became my favorite computer game when I played it.& it was up with alot of competition with me, and I happen to stumble across it all by itself on a shelf, last one and was on sale, (though now if I'd known it was so good, would've prolly paid full price if not abit extra!)& the information about the Psychometry, really intriguing too.I never watched any of the ghost shows because I honestly thought if they were creating tv shows about it, more than likely weren't entirely true, so most of my technecal information of such , your games & things you write. lol! Though, have seen some odd things. Theres a 1800s cemetary around an hour away from where I live. I had come across when I rode my dirtbike alot with my dad. It was funny cuz at the time, there was still people being buring there, like 3 new graves. Not unusual but there was only like 50 graves alltogether. Very small. And it was like 2003 when we found it.So, years later to 2009, me and my fiancee drive out to it, so I could show him. Cuz we go to abandoned houses and take pics and stuff, I'm a partical photographer, hobby.Anyways, so we go out there, take pictures and I show him certain names and I'm trying to find the newish graves to show him. They were not there. Nothing over the 1980s was there. rofl now if that wadn't creepy enough, cuz I remembered it being with dad, I even asked him again and he was like yeah there was. It gets dark, and ofcourse you get all the silly creepy chills this cemeratary is in the middle of no where, no houses for miles. Nothing new, I'm still taking pics, trying to get kewl nightshots.And theres a big tree to the middle front of the cemetary, you can't get to it. Because there's too many graves around it and it's impossible to know where to walk cuz it's so old. But theres a grave under it. No big deal, my love takes the camera and tries to get a pic of it, and we're standing there barely light up and I see two red deep eyes alittle to the left of the grave under the tree, with about my height level. They don't shine like an animals, so I'm intrigued. . but telling my love whos lookin through the camera, "You see that?"He calmly says yes, takes a pic and we start walking around the front of the cemetary trying to be all cool.He takes a pic of the front of the cemetary with the big name of it in teh metal arch, letter missing and stuff and I get like this horrible gut feeling. . I tell him this, and he's like, yeah go to the car. I erm. . run to the car. ROFLand he's all being cool, collected, walking to the car. I yell at him he gets in and I roll down my window, take the camera, look at the tree make him shine the car lights on it now it's fully dark and take a pic.

And we leave.Now, I don't believe in persay, ghosts or anything. . I do think there's something to it, I have my own ideas but that'll be another long post too, so I won't write it rofl! But when we looked at the pics,the pics of teh tree and some of the graves show white faces. . and in teh last pic there was a white girls face over the grave, a few in the tree anda terrble lookin, lightly outlined horned shadow creature is walking right towards the car in the last pic.And when we talked about what we "saw"Where I had seen the red eyes,my love had seen the white girl.And no eyes. rofl so it was pretty interesting. Needless to say, we've only been out there once more with a couple of friends to show them when we told them about it. . and we didn't stay after dark.

Utterly Awesome!Happy New Year to you too!Can't wait for The Last Crown,the first one became my favorite computer game when I played it.& it was up with alot of competition with me, and I happen to stumble across it all by itself on a shelf, last one and was on sale, (though now if I'd known it was so good, would've prolly paid full price if not abit extra!)& the information about the Psychometry, really intriguing too.I never watched any of the ghost shows because I honestly thought if they were creating tv shows about it, more than likely weren't entirely true, so most of my technecal information of such , your games & things you write. lol! Though, have seen some odd things. Theres a 1800s cemetary around an hour away from where I live. I had come across when I rode my dirtbike alot with my dad. It was funny cuz at the time, there was still people being buring there, like 3 new graves. Not unusual but there was only like 50 graves alltogether. Very small. And it was like 2003 when we found it.So, years later to 2009, me and my fiancee drive out to it, so I could show him. Cuz we go to abandoned houses and take pics and stuff, I'm a partical photographer, hobby.Anyways, so we go out there, take pictures and I show him certain names and I'm trying to find the newish graves to show him. They were not there. Nothing over the 1980s was there. rofl now if that wadn't creepy enough, cuz I remembered it being with dad, I even asked him again and he was like yeah there was. It gets dark, and ofcourse you get all the silly creepy chills this cemeratary is in the middle of no where, no houses for miles. Nothing new, I'm still taking pics, trying to get kewl nightshots.And theres a big tree to the middle front of the cemetary, you can't get to it. Because there's too many graves around it and it's impossible to know where to walk cuz it's so old. But theres a grave under it. No big deal, my love takes the camera and tries to get a pic of it, and we're standing there barely light up and I see two red deep eyes alittle to the left of the grave under the tree, with about my height level. They don't shine like an animals, so I'm intrigued. . but telling my love whos lookin through the camera, "You see that?"He calmly says yes, takes a pic and we start walking around the front of the cemetary trying to be all cool.He takes a pic of the front of the cemetary with the big name of it in teh metal arch, letter missing and stuff and I get like this horrible gut feeling. . I tell him this, and he's like, yeah go to the car. I erm. . run to the car. ROFLand he's all being cool, collected, walking to the car. I yell at him he gets in and I roll down my window, take the camera, look at the tree make him shine the car lights on it now it's fully dark and take a pic.

Just to say: Nanny Noah has presented 4 new psychometry objects, to the group.

It's a busy night in The Bear, but they haven't called last orders, just yet. So, grab a pint, and join us at the table..."Tonight, we have 4 new objects" announces Nanny Noah, "The Key. The Cassette Tape. The Match Box. The Plaque".

All have a story to tell, some darker than others. Come, try your mind at Psychometry!

All the psychometry objects have been analysed and details uncovered. I am looking forward to catching the ferry to Hallowed Isle, Jonathan. I'll be visiting the site often looking for any updates. Best wishes from Portugal